You want to keep your painting looking good, right?
That probably involves framing it.
Hi, Aaron here – thanks for checking in and I’m delighted that you’ve got your hands on a piece of my artwork!
I’ll get onto frame sizes in a second, but while I’ve got your attention, I can’t express enough how important it is to please get your painting behind glass and out of the sun!
The sun will fade the colours if you leave your painting unprotected, so if you love your painting, please find it a home somewhere that doesn’t get much sun. If the perfect hanging spot means direct light is unavoidable, I’ve put some links down below to places selling special anti-UV glass.)
Choosing a frame
Bespoke framing
I’d always recommend custom framing where possible – if you take your painting to a local framers, just ask what they’d recommend! If you really love your painting, it’s definitely worth the investment.
A slightly cheaper option is to use an online picture framing tool to play around – find a frame which suits your style, and of course matches the artwork!
My favourite UK site for custom frames is Eframe because you get special UV protective glazing as standard, with their custom frames.
Standard frame sizes
Most of the artwork I create for people is in two sizes: A4 fashion portraits, and A3 wedding portrait scenes. I’ve linked to some off-the-shelf frame suggestions below:
These paintings fit any frame with an A4 or 8″x12″ aperture. The list below all include a mount, which I recommend for a nicer looking finish – the space around the edge shows off the illustration better.
The Range
My larger scene paintings are almost always suitable for A3 size frames, or 12″x16″.
The actual size of my paper is sometimes 12″x17″ but I often paint with the extra inch in mind as a ‘spare’ or ‘bonus’ inch eg blank sky so clients have the option to get a slightly longer custom frame if they prefer.
If your painting was done live and still has the sketchbook ring holes, it may be slightly shorter at 11.75″x16″ but in this case will usually still fit a 12″x16″ or A3 frame as apertures are nearly always slightly smaller than the size of artwork stated.